Believe You Can

So you have decided to go on a diet 6 times and now you are on your 7^th. No one seems to be supporting you, your family entices you into eating something you love at every moment, telling you, you are silly and you don’t need to lose weight. If you are honest, you really don’t believe you are going to do it, do you?

And that is where the fault lies. You need to believe in your self.

Having faith in you is a decision. Many of us battle with this – we don’t believe we can lose the weight, curb the craving or make it past the front door alive! But faith is the foundation of behavior and it is a decision you can make.

Believing in yourself or rather making the decision to believe in yourself can be one of the simplest things you do and be one of the most helpful in combating your cravings and reducing your weight. This mindset will bring about the you want. It will lay the foundation for positive outcomes.

Don’t wait until all the doubt, unbelief and unanswered questions have been taken care of before you decide to put your trust in yourself. Face it all with confidence.

(Another help article in reference to beliefs: 3 Beliefs You Need)

Stick to It

Counting the cost of the large step you have made will help prepare you for the dark times, the low moments when you think your decision seems foolish, useless and a major inconvenience.

Rationalization has been responsible for sabotaging millions of decisions all over the world. Have you rationalized making a certain decision when it comes to your weight loss like these?

“It’s really not that bad”.

“I’ll start tomorrow”.

“It won’t hurt this one more time”.

“This will be the last one”.

“I shouldn’t oppress myself”.

“I’ve worked really hard, I deserve it”.

“Just a taste”

First of all, get it in context.

A craving creates tunnel vision – in the midst of a craving all that matters is that craving – it’s the most important thing in the world at that very moment. You need to step back and count your blessings. An important part of sticking to your diet plan is to allow for failure or slip-ups. Failures are building blocks for success in a way. Most people don’t have the courage to risk failure so put their selves out of the situation and don’t lose weight or attempt a lifestyle change i.e. their diet.

When you fail, which you will at times, don’t get discouraged. See it as a learning experience. Note how you felt before, during and after your slip-up.

Did the food have the desired effect you were looking for?

What do you think made you slip-up?

Slip-Ups can tell you a lot about yourself and also can be very eye opening. When I first changed my diet in the way I will lay forth to you, I was amazed at how often I turned to food for emotional comfort not to mention how many different cravings I had and how they made me feel physically and emotionally. I often discovered that after a while of being aware the food I had wanted and had given into just made me feel very tired or simply was not giving me what I used to get from it: comfort and joy.

Refresh Your Decision Daily

Now that you have written your decisions down, keep them by your bedside. When you wake up in the morning and lift your head off the pillow, grab that piece of paper and read through your decisions. I know this may sound like the hardest thing to do in the morning if you aren’t the morning type, but it is important to start your day on the right side of the bed as opposed to the wrong.

Read through your decisions and believe in them. Make yourself aware of them. This is your time to organize your day to succeed.

Related Articles:

Weight Loss Mindset 1: Making The Decision To Change

Weight Loss Mindset 2: Being Honest With Yourself

Weight Loss Mindset 3: Figuring Out The Why

Weight Loss Mindset 4: Starting On The Right Foot

Weight Loss Mindset 5: Believe You Can, Stick To It & Refresh Daily

Your success in quitting the junk and eating better to lose weight will be dependent on your ability to remain focused as you deal with the withdrawal from certain foods you love (like chocolate, bread, dairy).

One of the keys to succeeding is to treat decision-making like building a house. You lay the foundation before you build the walls. Although it is exciting to add the final touches – decoration – they can be completed only when the rest of the house is finished.

We would all love the blessings of freedom from bad habits, bad food choices, irritating compulsions to eat, and bingeing but first we must lay the foundation.

Bundling Your Decisions

Often, one large decision will involve many smaller but equally important decisions. Let’s look at an example. Say you are trying to get over a sugar addiction. You can’t keep away from your sweets to save your life! This may involve your decision to stay away from donut shops and other places where temptation rears its ugly head. It also may mean avoiding situations that are stressful because stress is another factor that can lead you to your sweet treats.

You may therefore need to make a list of hot places and avoid them for a certain period of time until you are confident you can resist their temptations. Often failure of a large battle is as a result of the small battles, which we all face throughout the day. Making a hard decision is very stressful too. When you feel like you are one step away from failing, decide right then and there to get alone and recharge.

The next points to consider, and that will be considered in the next few posts, are going to evolve around disciplines that will become the foundation of all the decisions you will make and are important in ensuring you stay on track!

Related Articles:

Weight Loss Mindset 1: Making The Decision To Change

Weight Loss Mindset 2: Being Honest With Yourself

Weight Loss Mindset 3: Figuring Out The Why

Weight Loss Mindset 4: Starting On The Right Foot

Weight Loss Mindset 5: Believe You Can, Stick To It & Refresh Daily

It is easy to make decisions in the heat of guilt (you just gave into a large slice of chocolate cake drizzled in cream and vow never to do so again!) but remorse is a poor base for decision. Emotions change like the wind and we soon forget the guilt we felt for eating what we shouldn’t and do the same thing again.

This is why deciding to go on a diet after a binge is destined to failure. Guilt can be a great motivation but it doesn’t last and it becomes a vicious circle. So what you really need to do is delve deep down inside and get your TRUE motivators for wanting to lose weight, give up chocolate etc. Knowing the real reasons for your decision and not quick guilt will help you stay on track and firmly.

The decision that you make today will affect you for years to come. To deal with compulsive eating or any craving and addiction will force you to face painful things inside your heart and they will rise up in power if they are disturbed through decision. This is why it is important to get a clear image of what you want and why exactly you want and need it.

Related Articles:

Weight Loss Mindset 1: Making The Decision To Change

Weight Loss Mindset 2: Being Honest With Yourself

Weight Loss Mindset 3: Figuring Out The Why

Weight Loss Mindset 4: Starting On The Right Foot

Weight Loss Mindset 5: Believe You Can, Stick To It & Refresh Daily

When making lifestyle changes, sometimes it isn’t enough to just make the decision to change that habit or pattern. We have become so accustomed to living a certain way that the only hope we have of getting out of it is to create a plan that can help us achieve the goals we want. A plan is not only important for helping us to achieve our goals and set out what we need to do, but it is also important to write up a plan – nice and neatly – to show its importance to us. Losing weight is very important to a lot of us – it is our route to being healthier, to being slimmer. Noting down on a scrap piece of paper our plan of action to achieve our outcome/goal will only get forgotten and won’t be taken seriously. Writing our plan up, printing it off (and even framing it if you must) will show how important the plan is to you and will place in your mind this importance on a subconscious level. This is crucial!

So if you want to take your goal of weight loss seriously you must write a plan. Open word or notepad on your computer and start planning! This may take some time especially if you lack the knowledge needed to create an effective plan, but there are many resources online that can help you with your meal plans section (some you may have to pay for, like my own plans on this website and please feel free to email me if you need any help to write this) and there is also a lot of help online for writing other aspects of your plan too.

Below are some questions you should answer in your plan:

1.What do you want?

You may be tempted to write “to lose weight” here, but this is a negative outcome. It is much more beneficial for your thinking mind to work towards something as opposed to trying to avoid or move away from something. “To lose weight” implies you want to move away from something, so is negative. Instead frame your answer in a positive way – positive meaning moving towards something like “to be slimmer”

Set a date to achieve your weight loss goal and how much you want to lose – for in 6 months time is a good goal to aim for so set it for 10^th October or whatever you want it to be.

2. How will you know you are succeeding/have succeeded?

It is important to know that you are on the right track with your goal. You need the right feedback in the right quantity and it needs to be accurate. So try setting realistic goals – whether you are going to look at your weight loss on a weekly/monthly basis etc. I would set a plan for 6 months as well. So use this to work out what you want in 6 months time as well as working up to the end of the 6 months.

3. What resources do you have and what obstacles do you have for achieving your goal?

Exercise equipment, weight loss support from friends/family, anyone you can follow or learn from, personal qualities, knowledge in nutrition and diet overcoming cravings, emotional eating etc.

4. What do you need to do to achieve your goal?

Under this section you can write a list of things you need to do in order to achieve your weight loss goal and overcome the obstacles you face (e.g. not enough knowledge on diet, fitting in exercise around my family). Of course you may be tempted to write general statements here like: eat healthier, exercise daily – but this isn’t what you need. You need to be specific about what is standing in your way currently and how to overcome it. Here is a sample list of things you can work on:

• Educate myself on diet and what foods to eat.

• Educate myself on emotional eating and cravings so I can overcome these obstacles when they arise.

• Increase my consumption of fruits and vegetables.

• Pick an exercise I enjoy and do it for at least half an hour daily.

• Work out a plan to slowly ease myself into a better eating habit e.g. Starting with change my breakfast to something healthier (like a fruit smoothie) for week 1 (or first month) and then adding in a healthier lunch and then two weeks later a healthier dinner. Also what about changing snacks?

• Create a perfect vision to help me get through the toughs time.

Also have a section of daily tasks:

• Walk for 1 hour (or whatever exercise).

• Increase my fruit and vegetable intake.

• Only drink water – cut out all other drinks.

• Be aware and conscious of my eating habits: when I am eating for comfort or emotional reasons.

If you bought a meal plan or had someone help you come up with one, write here to follow your meal plan or to follow one aspect of it if that’s what you are choosing to do (e.g. like having a healthier breakfast for the first week before incorporating a healthier lunch in too). You can amend daily tasks as you progress in the direction you want.

If on your list of things to do you have the task of educating yourself on diet and nutrition so you can actually write a meal plan for yourself, you will have to do this before you can set any real diet goals for yourself (other than eat more fruit and vegetables a day if that’s one of them or only drinking water).

This is quite a general overview of a weight loss plan and it may seem quite daunting to do at first but it is WELL WORTH IT. It will help you become focused on what you really want. Just getting it typed up and on paper laid out properly will give you the mental boost you need to succeed.

If you have any questions about this article or how to write your plan, you can email me at kelly@eating-naturally.com and I will be happy to help you!

Weight Loss Goals Part 1: Creating A Positive Weight Loss Mindset

Weight Loss Goals Part 2: The 3 Beliefs You Need For Weight Loss Success

Previous Post: Cellulite Treatment: How To Eliminate Cellulite

You need to believe:

1. POSSIBILITY: It is possible for you to get a slimmer body.
2. ACHIEVEMENT: You are able to lose weight or to get a slimmer body.
3. WORTHINESS: You deserve to lose weight or to get a slimmer body.

Possibility

Possibility is almost always mistaken for competence. We think that something isn’t possible, that we aren’t able to lose weight when really we don’t know how to do it – we don’t have the knowledge or resources to be able to lose weight. This is especially true in people who have tried countless diets with little or no success.

It is possible though, regardless of your situation. You can’t prove that it isn’t possible – you can only say that you haven’t achieved it yet.

Beliefs are not fact.

Beliefs are just our best guess at something and we often sell ourselves short. Do you think you have put a mental ceiling on your achievements? Do you think you have hindered your weight loss success through your beliefs about yourself?

Ability

Most of us tend to make others aware of our short comings, when we can’t do something. If you take a day out and observe people and what they say, you should notice how often people say they can’t do this or they can’t do that. We all think this is being modest, when in fact its not. Modesty is not boasting about what we can do, it isn’t boasting about what we can’t!

Once you become aware of yourself voicing your inability to lose weight, you can stop yourself voicing it. If you continue to voice your inability to lose weight, it will hold you back from achieving your weight loss goals. If you find it difficult to stop voicing your inability, a good alternative is to add the word “yet” to the end of your statements.

“I haven’t been able to lose weight…yet”

“I can’t lose weight…yet”.

It is also important not to make excuses for your weight loss failures. If you do not have the knowledge to lose weight, go out and get it. Set tasks that you need to do in order to achieve your slimmer figure.

A general belief that you should try to hold is:

You have not yet reached the limit of what you are capable of.

Keeping this in mind will help you to achieve your weight loss goals.

Worthiness

Do you deserve to lose weight? Does it make you feel uncomfortable to say you deserve to? If it does, this should help you figure out any obstacles that are in your way to achieving your goal. List them and work out how you can overcome them.

e.g. I don’t have the correct knowledge to lose weight – to overcome this I am going to do some research and find a suitable diet program or expert to help me.

For Help To Combat Cravings & Create Your Perfect Vision: CLICK HERE

Weight Loss Goals Part 1: Creating A Positive Weight Loss Mindset

Weight Loss Goals Part 3: Weight Loss Planning

When saying to yourself you want to lose weight, you are setting yourself up for failure to begin with. When you say you WANT to lose weight, you won’t do so because you are concentrating on what you cannot do while still trying to do it instead of willingly doing the task i.e. I CAN lose weight. When you say you can lose weight your goal becomes focused.

However there is still a problem in the goal “to lose weight”. When you say you want to lose weight you are describing a negative outcome – to lose, when what you need to be doing is describing something positive. Not positive in the sense of being good for you or positive feelings, but positive in the sense that you want to work towards it rather than something you wish to avoid or to lose!

So instead of making the goal to get rid of excess weight or to lose it, try to change your goal into something more positive. I want to be slimmer or I want to gain muscle or I want a better physique. Making your goal positive and something to work towards is the first step in creating a successful campaign against the excess weight! It is your end result and if you keep this in mind instead of focusing on the negatives (the losing weight part) then you will have much greater success in your weight loss endeavours.

For Help To Combat Cravings & Create Your Perfect Vision: CLICK HERE

Weight Loss Goals Part 2: The 3 Beliefs You Need For Weight Loss Success

Weight Loss Goals Part 3: Weight Loss Planning

Previous Post: The Dangers of Low Carb Diets: A Quick Overview